Humanitarian

Fund for Peace: Fragile States Index 2015, June 2015

The Fragile States Index, produced by The Fund for Peace, is a critical tool in highlighting not only the normal pressures that all states experience, but also in identifying when those pressures are pushing a state towards the brink of failure. It is an annual ranking of 178 nations based on their levels of stability and the pressures they face. Afghanistan remains a High Alert fragile state in 2015, with a worsening trend in the decade 2006-15. However during 2014 specifically, it's state did not worsen significantly, and thus it is not reported on specifically within this report.

International humanitarian assistance rose for a second year, to a record US$24.5 billion in 2014. All of 2013’s largest donors gave more in 2014. Despite this rise, funding was not sufficient to meet needs. In response to the scale of need in 2014, UN-coordinated humanitarian appeals requested the highest amount of funding to date – a total of US$19.5 billion – yet a record US$7.5 billion of requirements went unmet. Afghanistan in 2014 had the 5th largest population affected by humanitarian crises - 11.7m, or 38% of the total population. In 2013, much international funding went to countries suffering protracted crises including Afghanistan, Sudan and the oPt. However 2014 saw significant funding to acute needs, such as the conflicts in Syria and Iraq and the ebola crisis.

UNHCR: Global Trends in Forced Migration 2014, June 2015

2014 saw the highest global forced displacement on record: 59.5 million individuals were forcibly displaced worldwide as a result of persecution, conflict, generalized violence, or human rights violations. This is 8.3 million persons more than the year before (51.2 million) and the highest annual increase in a single year. More than half (53%) of all refugees worldwide came from just three countries: the Syrian Arab Republic (3.88 million), Afghanistan (2.59 million), and Somalia (1.11 million). Afghanistan remains the worlds largest protracted refugee crisis (see pg13 of the report).

HRW: The Mediterranean Migration Crisis, June 2015

Human rights abuses in their home countries are the driving force behind the surge in boat migration in the Mediterranean to reach Europe, report Human Rights Watch. The first half of 2015 has seen a huge increase in the number of refugees and asylum seekers risking their lives in overcramped boats. HRW has interviewed over 150 such people, the majority of whom come from Afghanistan, Syria and Somalia. Their stories reveal the extent of rights abuses and violence in all three countries. The report also calls on the EU to respond to their needs and rights in seeking refuge and asylum.

OCHA: Major conflict-induced displacements, June 2015

The start of the traditional spring fighting season has caused significant population movements in the Northern and Western regions, specifically in Badakhshan, Bagdhis and Kunduz provinces. Smaller scale conflict displacement has also been recorded in Baghlan, Farah, Faryab, Ghor, Herat, Jawzjan and Sar-e-pul Provinces.

HRW: Attacks on Health, May 2015

The second joint global report by the Safeguarding Health in Conflict Coalition and Human Rights Watch documents attacks on, and interference with, health workers, patients, facilities, and transports during periods of armed conflict or political violence. Afghanistan, with Syria and Iraq, is one of the highest risk countries. From 1st January to 15th August 2014, 41 incidents were reported where hospitals, clinics, and health personnel were attacked. Afghans have been denied access to services temporarily or permanently because of conflict near health facilities. Additionally, patients have been harrassed at checkpoints as they try to reach hospitals and clinics.

The Costs of War Project is a nonpartisan, nonprofit, scholarly initiative based at Brown University's Watson Institute for International Studies. The project and its reports analyzes the implications of the wars in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iraq in terms of human casualties, economic costs, and civil liberties.With war-related movement between Afghanistan and Pakistan, and cross-border military actions, the separate wars in the 2 countries are becoming one larger conflict. This report describes the two kinds of war-related death and injury: direct deaths due to violence, and deaths caused indirectly due to the effects of the destruction of infrastructure and displacement.

IDMC: Global Overview 2015, May 2015

The Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC) and Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) present their annual report on internal displacements. Afghanistan, covered in the South Asia section, saw an increase in IDPs from 631,000 in 2013 to 805,400 by December 2014. As in previous years, much of Afghanistan's new displacement took place in the south and east. The document provides commentary on protection issues, durable solutions and the national and international response. It also includes a special report on how displacement affects livelihoods and a section on protracted internal displacement.

BAAG: Humanitarian context & recommendations, April 2015

In the run up to the British general election, BAAG worked with the Humanitarian group of BOND, the UK network of aid organisations, to produce a series of briefing papers for the new cohort of British MPs. BAAG contributed a paper outlining the current humanitarian context and needs in Afghanistan, and presented a short series of priority recommendations for MPs to consider.

Chatham House: The Impact of IEDs on the Humanitarian Space in Afghanistan, April 2015

Improvised explosive devices (IEDs) are an increasingly common feature of the conflict in Afghanistan and they pose a growing threat to humanitarian organizations operating there. This paper considers the features of IEDs that distinguish them from other threats facing humanitarians and how their use may indicate a more fundamental challenge to the humanitarian sector: the erosion of the principles of neutrality and impartiality owing to the increasing militarization and politicization of humanitarian aid. Using the specific example of their effects in Afghanistan, this paper assesses the risks IEDs pose and highlights the negative impacts on humanitarian operations that measures used to mitigate this risk can have.

BAAG: Monthly report, April 2015

BAAG's monthly 2-sided review of the key news from Afghanistan, which for April included progress in the appointment of Cabinet positions, a bloody start to the Taliban's spring offensive, a deadly landslide in Badakhshan and concerns over the continued targetting of minority groups.

The findings of this report, by Norwegian Refugee Council and The Liaison Office, confound the common assumption that urban women and girls should be more able – in a supposedly more secure and progressive urban environment with a concentration of service providers – to access services and employment and social opportunities than prior to their displacement. This research found the opposite, showing that displacement places women and children at disproportionate risk, living with fewer freedoms and opportunities than those they enjoyed in their natal villages or when living in Pakistan or Iran. The report presents findings of research in three informal settlements in Jalalabad, Kabul and Kandahar.

Development Initiatives: An Act of Faith - humanitarian financing & Zakat, March 2015

Discussions abound regarding the increasing scale of humanitarian crises and the financing gaps these face. One potentially significant area of charitable giving that has received relatively little attention in discussions on the current humanitarian financing crisis is faith-based giving, and Islamic financing in particular. An Act of Faith explores the purpose, scale and potential of Zakat – one of the main tools of Islamic social financing – for financing humanitarian response. It provides a basis on which to open up discussions around how that potential might be maximised – both by increasing the overall volume of Zakat collected (rather than redirecting existing funds) and improving the mechanisms available to channel Zakat to the humanitarian response.

PSR: Body Count - civilian casualty figures after 10 years of the War on Terror, March 2015

Civilian casualty reporting in Afghanistan is incomplete and practically impossible. But understanding the real humanitarian and social consequences of political decisions in favor of military intervention is important. This publication by Pysicians for Social Responsibility (PSR) and 2 other organisations, shows how difficult it has been to grasp the real dimensions of these wars and how rare independent and nonpartisan casualty assessments have been. No verifiable complete figures are available - for example, the "passive" figures so far relied upon are only those from hospitals and morgues or reported by the media. Given the customary practice in Afghanistan of burying the dead within 24 hours, these are bound to be extremely conservative. Therefore the researchers use various sources, consider factors from other countries and posit projections.

The statistics on Afghanistan's refugee situation are staggering - 1 in 5 Afghans in the country has been a refugee, 1 in 5 refugees around the world are Afghan. UNHCR runs the programme for reintegration of returning refugess in Afghanistan. The Afghan government and international community have previously committed to the returnee process in both the TMAF and the Solutions Strategy for Afghan Refugees (SSAR). However both are beset with problems. UNHCR's paper calls upon the participants of December's London Conference on Afghanistan to focus on the needs of returnees and IDPs.